The tape clicked softly.
“There is one question you will ask. Why did Evelyn disappear?”
I leaned closer.
“The answer is that she didn’t.”
My breath stopped.
“Evelyn was placed in protective custody after giving evidence in a financial c/rime investigation. Her identity was changed. Contact with you was forbidden until the case ended.”
I stared at the recorder.
“The case ended twenty-two years ago,” Carl said.
Cold moved through me.
“She should have returned. She did not. I spent years searching for her. Every investigator reached the same conclusion—that Evelyn had vanished from the new life provided to her.”
A pause followed.
Then his voice became quieter.
“Three months ago, I found her.”
I stood so quickly that the recorder nearly fell.
“She has been living under the name Elise Ward. She knows who you are. She has followed your life from a distance, just as I did.”
